This Kindle blog of Kindle Fire, Paperwhite, and other e-Ink Kindle tips and Kindle news - with links to Free Kindle Books (contemporary also) - explores the less-known capabilities of the Amazon Kindle readers and tablets. Ongoing tutorials, guides for little-known features and latest information on the Kindle Fire tablets and their competitors. Questions are welcome in Comments area.
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"From the voyages and raids of the Viking tribes in the 10th century to the healing sought by Vietnam War soldiers decades after the conflict, today's deal presents a collection of stories about war and its aftermath. All nine of today's thought-provoking books are just $1.99 (up to 89% off)."

The accompanying "Kindle Kids Daily Deal" is Hero Dad which, as a "picture-book," is available only on Kindle Fire, Kindle Cloud Reader (that's free to all customers with access to the web), Kindle for iPad, and Kindle for Android.

NewsbitsThe Bookseller's Lisa Campbell mentions a "technical issue" that hit Amazon Thursday night, during which the buy button was missing for the Big6 publishers for some reason. Some time later, Amazon released a statement that "The Kindle Store is experiencing a technical issue. We’re working to correct it."

That it affected only the Big6 at a time when the Europe powers that be are accepting a Settlement with errant publishers (some of whom didn't accept one in the US but Europe will assign no fees, from what I read earlier, which is one reason they agreed) is somewhat intriguing, no? The publishers whose books were affected by the glitch were HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Random House (not involved in the lawsuits), and Macmillan.

More on Paperwhite reviews
For those more focused on reading than tablet play, the Kindle Paperwhite continues to rack up glowing reviews.

1. TechnoBuffalo's Brandon Russell's headline is "Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Review: This is the Best E-Reader Money Can Buy." and he writes, " It’s the best gadget of its kind, bar none, and something you should experience if you’re an avid reader."

He mentions that a "major difference" over the Barnes & Noble NOOK Touch (which he's considered "superb" otherwise) is the "high-res display and its impressive capacitive touch capabilities."

See the full review for much more detail and "What's Bad" as well as the usual "What's Good."

Amazon's own approach to front lighting, reportedly four years in the making, offered up a much whiter and far more evenly distributed illumination across the screen. So, how does the [Kobo] Glo fare after the arrival of the other two? Quite frankly, the company hit front lighting out of the park on its first try.

The Glo has even more in common with the Paperwhite on that front, with great light distribution across the display, devoid of any uneven splotches. According to Kobo, that's thanks to a "nano-printed fiber-optic film" -- a technology that sounds awfully similar to the one implemented by Amazon...like the Kindle, there's none of the blueish overcast present on the Simple Touch with GlowLight. If we're picking nits, there is a slightly perceptible yellowish tinge here, which you can see when you hold the reader up against the Paperwhite.

... there's a strong downside to Kobo's implementation -- text contrast suffers noticeably. Reading with the light off, there's not a lot of difference between the Paperwhite and Glo -- turn the light all the way up, however, and it becomes far more pronounced. '

The Kobo does have a rudimentary web browser (the Nook had a hidden one that didn't work well but they removed that in an update after May 2012). Unlike the Kindle's web browser, there is no pinch-to-zoom, which really is needed on such small devices, and I don't see an equivalent to the Kindle's specially laid-out (with larger print and no ads) "Article View" for single web articles.

The Kobo is available in parts of the world where the Kindle and Nook aren't, so it's a definite for serious consideration. There is much more detail on the user interface, etc. at the full article.

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Andrys: The screen on my approximately 2 year old kindle keyboard 3G failed so I am looking for a replacement. Do the current Kindle keyboard models offer exactly the same features--or has the KK changed?

Thanks Andrys. I called and they offered me a $15 discount on the basic (non keyboard) Kindle or the Kindle Touch, which doesn't seem to be current. Guess I will call back using the number you suggest. As you know, the new Paperwhite models won't ship for more than a month and seem to have encountered some problems. Another issue for me: I have the Amazon case for the Kindle KK and the charger.

Andrys: Not sure if my previous post went through...I bought a KK @ 30% discount. They weren't willing to go further. This will fit in the case that I have. I'll keep an eye on the K pw over the next month to see if they manage to address the various screen issues that seem to have come up.

MANY thanks for your very helpful suggestions above. Once again, your blog proves to be an essential resource for Kindle owners.

The charger works for any Kindle model. I use various Kindle chargers interchangeably w/ no probs. Sorry it wasn't 50%. But we tend to call until we reach a more-reasonable customer rep. It's not that you sat on it or something - the screen went bad. That should be treated differently. Some of the reps are not as up on these things. A loyal Kindle 3 customer 2 yrs later should get a decent discount. But glad you're okay to get one at not too bad a discount. (I'd try again.)

I have to use the 'delay' feature as I literally get about 100 spam comments to each genuine one. I don't want to use the Captcha because that is very frustrating to most who want to say something. There's a notice about this below the input box when commenting.

Sorry for the inconvenience and confusion. I have a Paperwhite and on the first day I could see some pink blue-green, but leaving it exposed to the air took away 95% of it and I have to remember to look hard now to see any area discolorations and only in a room with no lights. Otherwise, it's gorgeous now.

The KK is a good model. More space and with text-to-speech and free 3G globally on any mainly text-focused website.

Gordon, I was happy with the reading experience on the KK as it was and would not have bought another e-reader except for doing the blog.

However, the Paperwhite is really nice when the light is lower indoors, and I use the lighting just to get it to the 'whiter' look w/o letting it glow at me. I came to prefer the KTouch this year though I would not have bought it if not a blogger.

And the Paperwhite is what I choose to use now - there's something about being able to see it as almost white at anytime. And it's very light and yet solid feeling. Fonts are dark enough and resolution is very good. Images tend to look better and the zoom is more effective.

BUT I would have been very happy to just stay with what I had and likely would have.

One thing: My KTouch had a lighter background than my KK which was nice. The Paperwhite is a tad lighter w/o the light. I think that the KTouch font being heavier comes across somewhat darker, but Paperwhite darkness has been okay, except for the Home screen where they insist on using a very light, thin, whispy font which is 'neat' looking but annoys me. It's very good if one prefers Baskerville font. But we can change to 'covers' view. Otherwise, my main reaction is it's very pleasurable.

In rooms w/o any light at all I do see mild area-discolorations if I look for it but still prefer it to the other models. It's just that I would not have felt I needed it were I not blogging about Kindles.

I didn't have a positive reaction to the Nook Glowlight because the lighting method bothered me.

Do some 3G capable Kindles work in more countries than others? The KK does have twice the memory of newer models but I'm not sure what we would use it for, given the fact that amazon give us cloud storage anyway.

Gordon, True - all 3G Kindles will work in the same countries that have 3G access in deals with Amazon... I just get fixated on the fact that the KK will work for ALL text-heavy websites (not just Amazon store or Wikipedia) in about 60 countries.

The slowwww web browsing feature is enabled in 60 countries for the KK but 3G is possible for downloading of just Kindle books and access to the Amazon Kindlestore and Wikipedia in many more countries.

Am often away much of the day, and postings won't show up right away. Posts done to use referrer-links may never show up.

Usually, am online enough to release comments within a day though, so the hard-to-read match-text tests for commenting won't be needed this way.

Feedback and questions are welcome. Thanks for participating.

Technical Problems?If you're having problems leaving a Comment, Google's blogger-help asks that you clear the 'blogger.com' cookies on your browser's Tools or Options menu bar and that will fix the Comment-box problems (until they have a permanent fix).

IF that doesn't work either, then UNcheck the "keep me signed in" box -- Google-help says that should allow your comment to post (it's a workaround to a current bug). Apologies for the problems.

TIP: There's a size limit. If longer than 3500 characters or so, in a text editor, make two posts out of it.

Battery: how to keep it stronger?

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